Queens political operative John Haggerty has been found guilty of grand larceny in the second degree and money laundering. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
The longtime Republican get-out-the-vote specialist had been accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s re-election campaign in order to buy his family home.
The trial was one of the most closely-watched political trials in the city in years, and brought Mayor Bloomberg and his two closest aides–Kevin Sheekey and Patti Harris–to the witness stand to testify.
Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance took the case after New York Post political columnist David Seifman began looking into Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign finance filings. The case confounded some political and courthouse watchers, since Mr. Bloomberg appeared to not want the trial either, but that it was decided in the prosecution’s favor represents a substantial victory for the new district attorney.
And thank’s to Capital New York’s Azi Paybarah for passing along the video of Haggerty lawyer Dennis Vacco talking to reporters outside of the courtroom:
![Haggerty Guilty, Vance Victorious [Updated W/Video]](http://observer.com/wp-content/themes/newyorkobserver-2014/images/observer-logo-2015.png){kind=logo}